UNC football general manager Michael Lombardi joined 97.9 The Hill’s Aaron Keck this morning for “The Monday Morning Huddle,” presented by Chapel Hill Tire.
The Tar Heels earned their second consecutive ACC win Saturday at Kenan Stadium, beating visiting Stanford 20-15. The Carolina defense continued to dominate, sacking Cardinal QB Elijah Brown a season-high nine times. Now, UNC embarks on a three-game rivalry stretch to end the season, beginning with a visit to Wake Forest Saturday afternoon.
Here are a few of Lombardi’s answers on various topics:
On the Stanford game: It was good to get a home win. I think we fought hard in the game and Stanford was certainly a tough, hard-nosed team. I know their season hasn’t gone the way that they’d hoped it would, but they play with extreme intensity. They’re a 60-minute football team, and after the 20-3 lead, they fought back and we had to preserve the win. So it was good to get a win in front of the home crowd. It was good to keep the win streak alive.
On what the team has improved in the past month: Defensively we’ve been able to find a way to rush the passer. I think Tyler Thompson, Melkart [Abou-Jaoude], Isaiah Johnson, D’Antre Robinson, Leroy Jackson, our defensive front has really responded and has played at a very high level. Just all around defensively. We lost Thad Dixon in the Clemson game, and our secondary has really responded and played well. So, defensively we’ve gotten that and I think we’ve seen more production out of our offense. Not in the first half against Stanford, but certainly in the second half against Syracuse, the second half against Stanford. We saw it against Cal as well. We saw it against Virginia. So we’re continually getting better, and I think it’s important that we keep doing that. We’ve had some injuries in the offensive line and we’ve been able to overcome that. We’ve had a lot of moving pieces, and I think the young players on our team have responded. Jordan Hall started at left tackle in this game; in the first five weeks of the season, he didn’t even dress. That’s how much progress he’s made over the course of the year.
On Wake Forest: Wake did something and lot of teams aren’t able to do: they beat Virginia in a close game, on the road in Charlottesville. This will be a tough challenge for us. They’re a physical team, they’re really well-coached, and they play with great physicality. They remind you a lot of how Stanford played defense. They’re very physical, they’re tough. They run to the football, they play with a commitment to what they’re doing. So it’ll be a challenge on the road there. And I think our team is gonna look forward to it. We are gonna have to have a great week of practice, take it one day at a time with preparation and study and prepare for, ultimately, the game going into the fourth quarter and try to find a way to win it.
On how he wants the team to improve in the next few weeks: I think we’re looking at tomorrow’s practices and having our best day. Last week against Stanford, we were not good on third-down offense. We were not good in the two-minute drill in the fourth quarter. I think we have to work on the things that we weren’t good at and continue to get better. And we can’t get over our skis. We can’t look at what’s going on down the road. There’s a great story about Rick Pitino every year he goes into being a head basketball coach. He tells himself, “It’s my last year.” And the reason he does that is because he wants to understand how privileged it is to be in the job that he has. And I think that privilege is what allows him to be successful, to work hard, to not get tired for being tired, to not get annoyed at all the things that come into your day. And I think that’s a great message to our team is we are privileged to have the opportunity to get better tomorrow. And we gotta take advantage of it.
On his message to the fans: You can get tickets in Wake Forest. I’d love to see the Carolina Blue in Wake Forest. I think it’s important. I think it’ll be a great game and I would love to have our fans there and cheering us on like we did in Charlotte. We had a great crowd in Charlotte, which is an easy drive over. This is an even easier one. So hopefully we’ll be represented in the stands there in Wake Forest.
Listen below for the full conversation with Michael Lombardi, and tune in to hear the segment live on Monday mornings each game week!
Featured image via Associated Press/Chris Seward
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